The Laughing Man
by Kal-El Fornia
Summary: On a farm in the Forget-Me-Not Valley there is a shack that's always locked. When a traveler named Nami wakes up in the darkness one night, with only a man laughing in the shadows to keep her company, she finds out exactly on just why that shack is there.


I saw a story on here once, I forget the name of it, but the gist of it was that Nami had come across the shack that is always locked on the farm at Forget-Me-Not Valley, and when Jack comes across her snooping he decides to murder her. This is a similar look at a different kind of scenario.

I'll be back to the Harvest Moon fandom, writing something happier next time.

Quote of the Day:

 ** _"I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing..I was born with the evil one standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."_**

 ** _\- H.H. Holmes_**

* * *

When Nami opened her eyes, it was only to darkness.

At first, she thought that she had woken up in the middle of the night again as she often did, but that particular thought soon became apparently false when Nami realized that she wasn't in the comfort of her bed at Tim and Ruby's inn, but that she was somewhere else entirely. Her hands were bound together, chained together to something that was swaying above her head. Although she was engulfed in total darkness, Nami could feel that her legs were more free than her arms were, but still with heavy shackles around her ankles. The realization of just how trapped she was in this unknown place woke the young woman up faster than anything else in the world could, and she struggled and thrashed about, hoping that the chains that bound her in this darkness weren't as strong as they felt, and dreaming that she was anywhere else in the world.

Nami became totally still the moment that she heard laughing in the dark.

"I wondered how long it would take you to wake up."

The voice that spoke out to her was familiar, though the young woman couldn't exactly place from where. It was a frightening thing to hear coming from the blackness in front of her, but what made Nami's heart tremble more than the fact that she was bound before this man she did not know, this person who had sat before her in the dark watching her for who knows how long…the thing that terrified her the most was the almost wistful tone that this voice in the darkness had carried with it.

"Are you awake, Nami?" the voice spoke out again, friendly, neighborly even, "Or are you simply thrashing about in your sleep again? I wonder if you know how much you move about in your sleep. I wonder what made you so afraid of your dreams."

Nami stared in the direction of the voice in the darkness, and it became clear to her from this man's questions that he couldn't see her, just as she couldn't see him. She toyed with the thought of screaming so that hopefully some passerby to wherever it was that she was at could go and call for help. She even wondered if she could somehow use the chains that bound her as a weapon against whoever it was that had bound her in the first place. The dark of that room was filled with terrifying silence, and the woman soon realized that both ideas were hopeless.

"I have HIV!" Nami yelled out as fiercely and as convincingly as she could, hoping that her lie could dissuade whoever it was that this man happened to be.

Once again, there was laughter in the dark.

"If I wanted to fuck you, I would have fucked you already."

The voice sent a chill down her spine and a shiver through her heart.

There was a silence again, before Nami found the courage to speak. "What do you want?"

As soon as she asked her question, Nami heard the laughing man shuffle in the darkness before her. Even though he couldn't see what he was doing, she heard the Night Man picking up small objects from a table that was apparently with them in the room, before after a moment's hesitation the man in the darkness set whatever object he had picked up back down to move on to the next. The process repeated a handful of times before Nami realized what he was doing. It wasn't that the man in the shadows had trouble figuring out whatever it was that he was picking up, but it was more like he was a rich kid on Christmas morning, unsure of what shiny new toy to try out and play with first.

"I can pay you," her voice almost faltered, trying one last thing to save her from whatever horror this man wanted to inflict on her, "my dad has money. He can pay you too."

When the shuffling of objects stopped, Nami thought that perhaps her plan had worked. That is, until she heard the man speak again. This time, he did not laugh.

"I don't care about money."

In the distance, she could almost hear the stream of the Forget-Me-Not Valley.

"You grew up in the city? Or am I wrong, Nami?" the man continued on, taking a few steps closer to her as he spoke, "Well, I grew up on a farm. I know what it is to nurture a pig and let it suckle with its mother, before bringing it to this very room to meet my cleaver. I know what it is to bring my knife to a lamb and hear it scream like nothing else in the world can."

It was in that moment that she realized why the laughing man's voice sounded so familiar. Nami began to struggle and thrash in her chains, salty water gathering in the corners of her eyes. In spite of her chains, she tried to kick to no avail, and remembering Jack, wondering why he was doing this to her, Nami's thoughts lingered for a moment on the trinkets from the nearby dig site, and on a pretty autumn flower.

"I wonder," Jack's voice was almost a whisper now, the farmer lost in the pitch blackness of the room, "how will you scream?"

"Fuck you!" Nami yelled out through her tears and thrashing, the old soul of Robert Frost reminding her to not go gentle into the night.

"Oh?" the laughing man held back a chuckle, almost amused in a quaint sort of way.

"I won't scream for you, Jack." Nami swore, the traveler filled more with hatred than fear in that moment.

Jack only smiled, wondering if Nami would live up to her promise.

"We'll see."

* * *

Next time Jack murders Lumina? Haha, nah.


End file.
